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Abstract:

A database integration viewer that allows additional properties to be
associated with a record as viewed in a single record or table, even
though those additional properties are not owned by the record in the
underlying source record or table in the database. Using this integration
view, a viewed version of record or table may be different than the
actual structure of the source record or table. In the viewed version of
the record or table, the viewed record or table or may include some or
all of the properties for the records of the subject record or table,
while incorporating one or more additional properties for the record into
the viewed table. The properties may be scalars, or may be computed to
populate the viewed version of the record or table.

Claims:

1. A non-transitory computer program product comprising one or more
physical non-transitory computer-readable media having thereon
computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more
processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to
instantiate a database integration viewer, the database integration
viewer configured to formulate a view table that is a view of a database
table by performing the following: for each of at least some of a
plurality of properties of the database table, an act of populating a
corresponding property in the view table using the corresponding property
of the database table; for at least one property of the view table, an
act of computing a value for the property from data external to the
database table; and an act of displaying a view table in which the at
least some of the plurality of properties of the database table are
displayed, and displaying the at least one computed property.

2. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the
at least one property of the view table comprises a plurality of computed
properties.

3. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein the
computed property is an assigned scalar value.

4. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein for a
given one computed property, the act of computing the value for the
property is performed by performing the following: an act of accessing an
expression; an act of evaluating the expression; an act of assigning a
result of the expression as the value of the computed property.

5. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the
expression includes as input a reference to a property from a second
database table.

6. The computer program product in accordance with claim 5, wherein the
expression also includes as input a reference to a property from a third
database table.

7. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the
expression is a reference to a property from a record outside the
database table.

8. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the
expression is an arithmetic expression.

9. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the
result of the expression is a scalar.

10. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the
result of the expression comprises a record.

11. The computer program product in accordance with claim 4, wherein the
result of the expression comprises a plurality of records.

12. The computer program product in accordance with claim 1, wherein
integrated database viewer is one of a plurality of table viewers offered
by the computer program product.

13. A non-transitory computer program product comprising one or more
physical non-transitory computer-readable media having thereon
computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more
processors of the computing system, cause the computing system to
instantiate a database integration viewer, the database integration
viewer configured to formulate a view record that is a view of a database
record by performing the following: for each of at least some of a
plurality of properties of the database record, an act of populating a
corresponding property in the view record using the corresponding
property of the database record; for at least one property of the view
record, an act of computing a value for the property from data external
to the database record; and an act of displaying a view record in which
the at least some of the plurality of properties of the database record
are displayed, and displaying the at least one computed property in a
manner associated with the view record.

14. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein the
at least one property of the view record comprises a plurality of
computed properties.

15. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein the
at least some of a plurality of properties of the database record
comprises all of the properties of the database record.

16. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein the
database records is part of a database table.

17. The computer program product in accordance with claim 13, wherein for
a given one computed property, the act of computing the value for the
property is performed by performing the following: an act of accessing an
expression; an act of evaluating the expression; an act of assigning a
result of the expression as the value of the computed property.

18. The computer program product in accordance with claim 17, wherein the
expression includes as input a reference to a property from outside of
the database record.

19. The computer program product in accordance with claim 17, wherein the
result of the expression comprises a plurality of records.

20. A computer-implemented method for formulating a view table that is a
view of a database table, the method comprising: for each of a plurality
of properties of the database table, an act of equating a value of a
corresponding property in the view table as being the same as a value of
the corresponding property of the database table; for at least one
property of the view table, an act of computing a value for the property
from data external to the database table, the computation following an
expression associated with the at least one property of the view table,
each of the at least one property of the view table corresponding to a
column in the view table, wherein the act of computing the value
comprises: an act of accessing an expression; an act of evaluating the
expression; an act of assigning a result of the expression as the value
of the computed property; and an act of displaying a view table in which
the plurality of properties of the database table are displayed, and in
which the at least one computed property.

Description:

BACKGROUND

[0001] Databases allow data to be conveniently accessed and searched by a
computing system, and are thus an efficient way for a computing system to
store and organize information. A database is a logically related
collection of records. Each record may include one or more properties
having associated values. Often, such records are organized into tables
with each row in the table corresponding to a record, and each column
corresponding to a particular property. Often there are multiple tables
in a database. A record viewer allows a user to view a record in the
database, whereas a table viewer allows the user to view a table in the
database.

[0002] Typically, such viewers allow the user to view the records and
tables as they exist in the database. For instance, if a table in the
database includes 35 records (or 35 rows), with each record having
potentially 6 properties (or 6 columns), that is the table that the user
would see using the table viewer of the database. If the user were then
to view another table having 71 records each having 5 properties, that is
also what the user would see in the table viewer. To compare properties
of multiple tables, the user typically navigates from one table to the
next, to gather the relevant data.

BRIEF SUMMARY

[0003] At least one embodiment described herein relates to a database
integration viewer that allows additional properties to be associated
with a record or table as viewed, even though those additional properties
are not owned by the record in the underlying source record or table in
the database. Thus, using this integration view, a viewed version of the
record or table may be different than the actual structure of the source
record or table. In the viewed version of the record or table, the viewed
record or table or may include some or all of the properties for the
record(s), while incorporating one or more additional properties for the
record(s) into the viewed record or table, even though those additional
properties are not owned by the record(s) in the actual subject record
table of the database.

[0004] The additional properties may be any property that a user may find
helpful. The additional properties may be properties from other record
tables that are different from the actual subject record or table upon
which the viewed record or table is constructed. The additional
properties may be scalar values, or may be computed properties that
result from some computation. Accordingly, the viewed records or tables
provided by the integration viewer are not limited to the underlying
structure of any given record or table of the database, allowing users to
obtain a much more tailored view on the information represented by the
database.

[0005] This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential
features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as
an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and
other advantages and features can be obtained, a more particular
description of various embodiments will be rendered by reference to the
appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only sample
embodiments and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of the
scope of the invention, the embodiments will be described and explained
with additional specificity and detail through the use of the
accompanying drawings in which:

[0007]FIG. 1 illustrates an example computing system that may be used to
employ embodiments described herein;

[0008]FIG. 2A illustrates an environment in which a database integration
viewer formulates a view record that is a view of a database record;

[0009]FIG. 2B illustrates an environment in which a database integration
viewer formulates a view table that is a view of a database table;

[0014]FIG. 6A illustrates an example logical flow that maps a database
record to a view record; and

[0015]FIG. 6B illustrates an example logical flow that maps a database
table to a view table.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0016] In accordance with embodiments described herein, a database
integration viewer is described that allows additional properties to be
associated with a record as viewed in a single record or table, even
though those additional properties are not owned by the underlying record
or table in the database. Using this integration view, a viewed version
of a record or table may be different than the actual structure of the
source record or table within the database. In the viewed version of the
record or table, the viewed record or table or may include some or all of
the properties for the record(s) from the database, while incorporating
one or more additional properties for the record into the viewed record
or table. The properties may be scalars, or may be computed to populate
the viewed version of the table. First, some introductory discussion
regarding computing systems will be described with respect to FIG. 1.
Then, various embodiments of the database integration viewer using
computed properties will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 through
6B.

[0017] First, introductory discussion regarding computing systems is
described with respect to FIG. 1. Computing systems are now increasingly
taking a wide variety of forms. Computing systems may, for example, be
handheld devices, appliances, laptop computers, desktop computers,
mainframes, distributed computing systems, or even devices that have not
conventionally considered a computing system. In this description and in
the claims, the term "computing system" is defined broadly as including
any device or system (or combination thereof) that includes at least one
processor, and a memory capable of having thereon computer-executable
instructions that may be executed by the processor. The memory may take
any form and may depend on the nature and form of the computing system. A
computing system may be distributed over a network environment and may
include multiple constituent computing systems.

[0018] As illustrated in FIG. 1, in its most basic configuration, a
computing system 100 typically includes at least one processing unit 102
and memory 104. The memory 104 may be physical system memory, which may
be volatile, non-volatile, or some combination of the two. The term
"memory" may also be used herein to refer to non-volatile mass storage
such as physical storage media. If the computing system is distributed,
the processing, memory and/or storage capability may be distributed as
well. As used herein, the term "module" or "component" can refer to
software objects or routines that execute on the computing system. The
different components, modules, engines, and services described herein may
be implemented as objects or processes that execute on the computing
system (e.g., as separate threads).

[0019] In the description that follows, embodiments are described with
reference to acts that are performed by one or more computing systems. If
such acts are implemented in software, one or more processors of the
associated computing system that performs the act direct the operation of
the computing system in response to having executed computer-executable
instructions. An example of such an operation involves the manipulation
of data. The computer-executable instructions (and the manipulated data)
may be stored in the memory 104 of the computing system 100.

[0020] Computing system 100 may also contain communication channels 108
that allow the computing system 100 to communicate with other message
processors over, for example, network 110. Communication channels 108 are
examples of communications media or "transitory" media. Communications
media typically embody computer-readable instructions, data structures,
program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal such as a
carrier wave or other transport mechanism and include any
information-delivery media. By way of example, and not limitation,
communications media include wired media, such as wired networks and
direct-wired connections, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio,
infrared, and other wireless media. The term computer-readable media as
used herein includes both storage media and communications media.

[0021] Embodiments within the scope of the present invention also include
a computer program product having computer-readable media for carrying or
having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored
thereon. Such computer-readable media (or machine-readable media) can be
any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special
purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such
computer-readable media can comprise physical non-transitory storage
and/or memory media such as RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other
optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage
devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired
program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or
data structures and which can be accessed by a general purpose or special
purpose computer. Combinations of the above should also be included
within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0022] Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example,
instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special
purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a
certain function or group of functions. Although the subject matter has
been described in language specific to structural features and/or
methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter
defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific
features or acts described herein. Rather, the specific features and acts
described herein are disclosed as example forms of implementing the
claims. The computer-executable instructions cause the computer or
processing device to perform the function or group of functions because
the computer-executable instructions have a certain structure. If
digitally represented, for example, such structures may represent one or
more bits of information. In the case of magnetic storage media, for
example, such as structure may be a level and/or orientation of magnetism
on the media at predetermined parts of the magnetic storage media. In the
case of optical storage media, for example, such a structure may be a
level of reflectivity of the media at particular predetermined parts of
the optical media.

[0023]FIG. 2A illustrates an environment 200A in which a data integration
viewer 210A may be used to formulate a view record 211A that is a view of
a database record 212A. The database record 212A is an actual record in a
database, whereas the view record 211A is simply a view on that database
record 212A, and need not reflect the actual structure of the record
exactly. FIG. 3A illustrates a database record 300A. A typical database
record includes any number of properties. The example database record
300A of FIG. 3A includes properties 301A through 306A. The ellipses 307A
represent, however, that database records may have any number of
properties. As an example, a club membership record might include
properties for first name, middle name, last name, address, admission
date, membership renewal date, dues paid status, and the like. A car
record might include properties such as manufacturer, model, year,
transmission type, color, miles per gallon in city, miles per gallon on
highway, and so forth. The database record 212A may be an actual database
record in the database, or may be itself be constructed by evaluating an
expression.

[0024] The database integration viewer 210A may provide any number of
record viewers 221A, 222A and 223A, with the ellipses 224A representing
that there may be other numbers of record viewers as well. The type of
record viewer, and the manner in which the viewer is configured, may
affect the appearance of the record as viewed by the user.

[0025]FIG. 2B illustrates an environment 200B in which a data integration
viewer 210B may be used to formulate a view table 211B that is a view of
a database table 212B. The database table 212B is an actual table in a
database, whereas the view table 212B is simply a view on that database
table 212B, and need not reflect the actual structure of the table
exactly. FIG. 3B illustrates a database table 300B. A table typically
contains multiple records that have a similar schema. Each row in the
table represents a record, whereas each column of the table corresponds
to a property. Thus, a particular property of a particular record may be
found in the table by finding the intersection of the row corresponding
to the record, and the column corresponding to the property. The example
database table 300B of FIG. 3B includes records 311 through 315, with the
ellipses 316 representing that the table 300B may have any number of
records. The example database table 300B also includes six columns
corresponding to properties 301B, 302B, 303B, 304B, 305B and 306B, with
the ellipses 307B representing that there may be other numbers of
properties as well. As an example, a club membership table may include a
row for each member of the club.

[0026] The database integration viewer 210B may provide any number of
table viewers 221B, 222B and 223B, with the ellipses 224B representing
that there may be other numbers of table viewers as well. The type of
table viewer, and the manner in which the viewer is configured, may
affect the appearance of the table as viewed by the user.

[0027]FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart of a method 400 for formulation a
view record or table. The method 400 may be performed in the environment
200A of FIG. 2A to formulate a view record, or in the environment 200B of
FIG. 2B to formulate a view table. First, the application of the method
400 of FIG. 4 to the environment 200A of FIG. 2A will be described.

[0028] According to the method 400, for at least one, perhaps some, and
perhaps all of the properties of the database record, the corresponding
property in the view record is populated using the corresponding property
of the database record (act 401). As an example, the value of the
corresponding property in the view table may be assigned as being the
same as the value of the corresponding property of the database record.

[0029]FIG. 6A illustrates an example 600A in which some of the properties
of the database record are mapped to corresponding properties of the view
record so that the values are the same. FIG. 6A is just an example as the
principles described herein may be applied to any configuration in which
one or more properties of database records are mapped to corresponding
properties of the view record. In FIG. 6A, the database record 300A of
FIG. 3A is used in which there are six properties 301A, 302A, 303A, 304A,
305A and 306A. In the view record 601A, there are also six properties
611A, 612A, 613A, 614A, 615A and 616A. Three of the view record
properties are mapped directly with a corresponding database record
property. For instance, database record property 301A is mapped to view
record property 611A, database record property 302A is mapped to view
record property 614A, and database record property 303A is mapped to view
record property 616A.

[0030] For at least one of the properties of the view record, the
integrated database viewer computes a value for the property (act 402).
In FIG. 6A, for example, the value of property 612A is computed using the
value of property 304A and the value of property 305A as input.
Specifically, the result from the computation 621A is provided as the
value of the property 612A For instance, perhaps property 612A is a full
name property, whereas property 304A was a first name property, and
property 305A was a last name property. In that case, the computation
might be a concatenation of the two string values from 304A and 305A to
formulate another string for population into property 612A.

[0031] The computed property may also be computed using data external to
the database record in addition to, or as an alternative to, the data
from the database record. For instance, referring to FIG. 6A, the value
of property 613A is computed based on external data 631A, as well as
using the value from the database record property 306A. That external
data 631A might be, for example, another database record, or perhaps from
another database table. In FIG. 6A, this is accomplished by computation
622A.

[0032] The computed property may also be computed using multiple external
pieces of data from multiple sources external to the database record. For
instance, referring to FIG. 6A, the value of property 615A is computed
based on external data 632A and external data 633A using computation
623A. The external data may be data from outside of the database record,
or outside of the database table in which the database record appears.
The external data 632A and 633A may be within another database record or
another database table, or need not be within the database at all. For
instance, the external data may have been obtained over the Internet from
a remote source.

[0033] With the properties acquired, the method may display the view
record (act 403), which includes the properties of the database as well
as the one or more computed properties. FIG. 6A illustrates an example of
such a view record, although as previously mentioned, the view record may
have any number of computed properties. In addition, there may be any
number of views on the view record as described with respect to record
viewers 221A, 222A and 223A.

[0034]FIG. 4, which has just been described with respect to a view record
of FIG. 6A, will now be described with respect to a view table of FIG. 6B
in which the method in performed in the environment 200B of FIG. 2B to
formulate a view table. According to the method 400, for at least one,
perhaps some, and perhaps all of the properties of the database table,
the corresponding property in the view record is populated using the
corresponding property of the database record (act 401). As an example,
the value of the corresponding property in the view table may be assigned
as being the same as the value of the corresponding property of the
database table.

[0035]FIG. 6B illustrates an example in which some of the properties of
the database table are mapped to corresponding properties of the view
table so that the values are the same. FIG. 6B is just an example as the
principles described herein may be applied to any configuration in which
one or more properties of database tables are mapped to corresponding
properties of the view table. In FIG. 6B, the database table 300B of FIG.
3B is used in which there are six properties 301B, 302B, 303B, 304B, 305B
and 306B. In the view table 601B, there are also six properties 611B,
612B, 613B, 614B, 615B and 616B, each corresponding to a column of the
table. Three of the view table properties are mapped directly with a
corresponding database table property. For instance, database table
property 301B is mapped to view table property 611B, database table
property 302B is mapped to view table property 614B, and database table
property 303B is mapped to view table property 616B.

[0036] For at least one of the properties of the view table, the
integrated database viewer computes a value for the property (act 402).
In FIG. 6B, for example, for each row in the table, the value of property
612B is computed 621B using the value of property 304B and the value of
property 305B as input. For instance, perhaps property 612B is a full
name property, whereas property 304B was a first name property, and
property 305B was a last name property. In that case, for each row, the
computation might be a concatenation of the two string values from 304B
and 305B to formulate another string for population into property 612B.

[0037] The computed property may also be computed using data external to
the database table in addition to, or as an alternative to, the data from
the database table. For instance, referring to FIG. 6B, the value of
property 613B is computed based on external data 631B, as well as using
the value from the database table property 306B. That external data 631B
might be, for example, another database record, or perhaps from another
database table. In FIG. 6B, this is accomplished by computation 622B.

[0038] The computed property may also be computed using multiple external
pieces of data from multiple sources external to the database record. For
instance, referring to FIG. 6B, for each row, the value of property 605B
is computed based on external data 632B and external data 633B using
computation 623B. The external data may be data from outside of the
database record, or outside of the database table in which the database
record appears. The external data 632B and 633B may be within another
database record or another database table, or need not be within the
database at all. For instance, the external data may have been obtained
over the Internet from a remote source.

[0039] With the properties acquired, the method may display the view table
(act 403), which includes the properties of the database table as well as
the one or more computed properties. FIG. 6B illustrates an example of
such a view table, although as previously mentioned, the view table may
have any number of computed properties. In addition, there may be any
number of views on the view table as described with respect to table
viewers 221B, 222B and 223B.

[0040] For each computed property, there may be an expression that is
evaluated in order to compute the value of the computed property. In the
case of a record, the expression may be assigned to a particular property
of the record, in which case the result of the computation is assigned as
the value of that particular property in the view record. In the case of
a table, the expression may be assigned to a particular property of the
view table. In that case, the expression may be evaluated for each row in
the table to assign the computed property value into the column
corresponding to the particular property for each row in the view table.

[0041] The expression may be a simple scalar value, in which case the
scalar value is simply assigned as the computed property value.
Alternatively, the expression may be an arithmetic expression that might,
or might not, contain input parameters. If the expression does contain
input parameters, the input parameters may be references to properties
and locations external to the database record or database table that is
acting as a source for other properties of the view record or view table.

[0042]FIG. 5 illustrates a method 500 for computing a computed property,
which may be performed for each computed property. The expression
associated with the computed property is accessed (act 501). The
expression is then evaluated (act 502), and the result of the expression
is assigned as the value of the computed property (act 503).

[0043] The result of the expression evaluation may itself be of any form.
For instance, the result may be a scalar, or may be an entire record, or
perhaps may be a collection of records.

[0044] Thus, the principles described herein allow a view record or table
to be constructed in a flexible way using data from not only the
underlying database record or table, but also using data from other
portions of the database, or even data external to the database. The
present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without
departing from its spirit or essential characteristics. The described
embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and
not restrictive. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated by
the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All changes
which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are
to be embraced within their scope.